Revitalisation Review: Evangelism

Episode 6: Evangelism

Episode Summary
Evangelism isn’t just something we do—it’s something we become. This episode looks at distinctive discipleship as the foundation for effective, authentic witness in a hungry world.

Key Topics Covered
·       Being the evangelism before doing the evangelism

·       How suffering shapes witness and openness

·       The cost of being distinctive in a conforming culture

·       Encounters that reflect the cross in everyday life

·       What the early church teaches us about growing through integrity

Reflection Questions
·       What does it look like to become evangelism where you are?

·       How does your story of suffering connect with others?

·       Where might you be blending in rather than standing out?

·       What spiritual hunger are you noticing in those around you?

·       How are you embodying the message before you speak it?

Connect & Continue the Conversation
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Email: churchplantchat@gmail.com

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Chapters

• 0:00 Becoming the Evangelism
• 1:39 Spiritual Openness and the Quiet Revival
• 4:32 Being Distinctive in a Culture of Conformity
• 8:26 The Power of Shared Suffering
• 13:01 Learning from the Early Church
• 14:40 Questions for Distinctive Discipleship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What does it mean to become the evangelism, not just do evangelism? In today's episode episode 6, I want to touch briefly on evangelism and just one aspect of it, which is the encouragement for us, the church, to be distinctive disciples and that in remaining distinctive, we ourselves become the evangelism by being distinctive disciples. We inhabit the good news through our daily choice to go against the grain of the world. So to start the episode, I want to read 2 Timothy, chapter 4, verses 1 to 5, which has been a key portion of scripture for me as I've pondered over how we live out an evangelistic life. Naturally, here it is In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you, proclaim message, be persistent, whether the time is favourable or unfavourable, convince, rebuke and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching, for the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine but, having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully? Are we recognising the spiritual openness around us right now? How do we carry the weight of the gospel? Well, in this moment I'm by no means a qualified person really to talk about this, but I do get excited about the opportunities for sharing the good news of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 2:04

We're in an incredible season for evangelism. As I observe what's happening around my local parish, setting my friends in the media, I'm seeing an awesome openness to spirituality and the yearning for a saviour. Every time I look on social media at the moment there's another celebrity announcing their newfound faith in Jesus Christ. It's amazing and, of course, the Quiet Revival which has been at the forefront of many Christian headlines at the time of recording this something is clearly stirring. There is this kind of retro revival happening especially among young adults, where they are craving the authentic, the tangible real thing. You know the surface level digital forms of life aren't cutting it and I think this is translatable into the spiritual dynamic that we are in. People are craving the real thing, the word made flesh, the tangible Jesus.

Speaker 1: 3:10

Just recently at our church, we've had people turning up simply because they've woken up and sensed God's telling them to go to church. We've had children in our community asking their parents to bring them to our church. Teenagers have asked for Bibles. There are prodigals returning and, more personally, lifelong friend who I've shared the gospel with over numerous times over the years called me not too long ago and said he's recently read John's gospel.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Amazing, something is stirring friends and as I witness this openness and hunger for something more growing in the world around us, I find myself becoming increasingly aware of the charge that Paul gives Timothy in these verses. As leaders in in our plants, in our revitalisation projects, in our own family and friendship circles, we are constantly analysing the heart of what we do in our churches and communities and the shape in which we present the gospel. And with the openness we're witnessing in the world currently, I feel the increasing weight of Paul's charge for us in our evangelism to be distinctive disciples. How can we be distinctive disciples in a culture of conformity? Are we willing to live and preach what's uncomfortable but true? In the first four verses of this paragraph from Paul, he warns Timothy of people only wanting to hear the truth that identifies to their needs. That people will use doctrine to justify their own desires and will end up wandering away to other myths. Urges Timothy to be persistent whether the time is favourable or unfavourable. In other words, don't go with the flow of a disillusioned doctrine, but go out of your way to ensure that you hold on to what makes our doctrine and faith distinctive. He's warning Timothy in his ministry, in his evangelism, to not blend in with what people want to hear, to not be swayed by the culture or secularism of the times, but to hold fast in God's presence and in Christ Jesus, and to do this with the utmost patience.

Speaker 1: 5:44

When people come to the events that we put on the discipleship pathway, we map out the, the missional events that we daisy chain throughout the year, they're not coming expecting us to be the same as everyone else. People come to these things. They come to church. They meet us as Christians with a hope and a desire to see something different, and we have something distinctive and different to offer them. Something distinctive and different to offer them. So let's not be afraid to do that. In the film Wonder, the parent of a child whose face is disfigured is reassuring the child that they don't need to try and blend in with the crowd, to try and be like them, because they were never meant to be. The parent says you can't blend in when you were born to stand out. Friends, we are called to be set apart. We are called to be different, to stand out. We have something different to offer people, something not of this world.

Speaker 1: 6:45

We regularly engage in all this crazy stuff as Christians, stuff that blows people's minds, and yet we keep quiet about it. We get embarrassed. Think about it. We engage in this act of remembrance where we eat bread and drink wine that symbolise the body and blood of a saviour who brutally died and rose again. I mean, I wear a cross that symbolizes that terrible torture that he suffered. We make claims that we can have an ongoing conversation with the one and only true God, like it was a conversation passing by a friend on the street. Through these conversations with this God, we see people healed. We get prophetic words and pictures that speak into people's lives. We witness people's lives transformed, people who completely drop all addictions, people who are able to forgive others who have brutally hurt them. We have churches planted all around the world that grow even though they're persecuted, and we have texts hundreds and hundreds of years old, endorsed by both Christian and non-Christian scholars, to back all of this crazy stuff up.

Speaker 1: 8:01

What we have to offer in our evangelism is not normal, friends. We are different and it's okay for us to go against the grain grain, to be distinctive in how we live and share the gospel. What if our most powerful evangelism happens in shared suffering? Are we confident enough in the gospel to share even the hard parts? To encourage you in this, I want to share an encounter I had recently. I've been going regularly to hospital for infusions to treat something I mentioned a few episodes ago, and these infusions take a few hours. So that infusion chair that I sit in has been somewhat of my mission ground.

Speaker 1: 8:57

Sat next to me on a few occasions was Mark, not his real name. We got talking and as I listened he began to share some of his life story and the suffering he'd endured and, having come out the other side of that, he is now grateful for so much. And then we then began to joke, you know, in the shared suffering we had because of the illness that we both have treatment for. He then asked me a bit about myself and I shared. I was a vicar. And then I began to speak about my faith, but I didn't find myself speaking about my faith in the normal way I perhaps would when quote-unquote evangelising. Instead, I found myself rooting my pitch, as it were, in the suffering hallmark of the gospel and linking the suffering that Mark had in his life to Jesus's understanding of it in the cross, and talking about the assurance and firm footing that comes from that empathy and taking on of suffering that Christ has.

Speaker 1: 10:03

And initially, you know, you second guess yourself sometimes when you're doing this off the cuff. You know, in that moment, initially I wondered maybe I'd made a mistake in taking this approach. You know it's a bit different. You know, let's face it, talking about suffering as an encouragement and act of love isn't the most attractive pitch. But instead Mark identified with it immediately and he actually became quite emotional. Something about his own suffering had been found in the suffering of Christ crucified, something about mine and his shared suffering in the condition we both have and receive treatment for furthered that connection onto a more human level too. And from there I bought him Tim Keller's book on the reason for God for him to read, which he did, and I offered him the Alpha series on YouTube to watch, several of which he did. And we had an ongoing conversation from time to time when we sat together having our infusions and, as far as I know, mark hasn't given his life to Jesus yet and my part of evangelising has just been one step towards that. You know, we don't need to always burden ourselves with taking someone on the whole journey. Sometimes we're just one stop of their ticket and that's good and OK.

Speaker 1: 11:29

Ok, could suffering actually be one of our greatest gospel distinctives? What kind of hope can only the suffering God offer? I think the point I want to emphasise here is that in that evangelistic moment, it was the distinctive nature of suffering that spoke to. Mark Didn't need to sugarcoat or shy away from the hardship of life or of faith. Instead, I learned to, albeit somewhat accidentally and clumsily in the moment, and offered one of the most unique aspects of our Christian faith to Mark, of our Christian faith to mark. Because the thing is, if we can offer that as our pitch, in a way that is rooted in the joy of our salvation, then that is a distinctive hope found in our suffering God, and that's a hope and joy and love and reality that the world simply cannot offer. It goes against the grain of do this and all your dreams will come true. It goes against entitlement, consumerism, perfectionism, competition, earning towards rewards and many more things that the world or even other religions offer. Suffering is one of the distinctive hallmarks of our faith in Christ and we need to own that when sharing the gospel.

Speaker 1: 12:57

What can we learn from the early church about growth and distinctiveness? Are our lives convincingly different enough to draw people in? And the early church was distinctive. It stood out in the way it behaved and in the way it worshipped. Alan Creeder in his book the Patient Foment of the Early Church brilliant book states that the church's growth was the product not of the Christian's persuasive powers but of their convincing lifestyle. Their distinctive, embodied character attracted new people to the faith. They grew because they required commitment to an unpopular God who didn't require people to perform cultic acts correctly but instead equipped them to live in a way that was richly unconventional Richly unconventional. Why do we make that our strategy for evangelism? The early church's distinctive discipleship led to growth. They were committed to an unpopular God. What we preach, how we behave, may not always be culturally popular or received favourably, but we are charged to persist patiently in our teaching, in our evangelism, because we cannot blend in when we were born to stand out.

Speaker 1: 14:29

So, as I wrap up this episode. Here are some questions to consider around being distinctive disciples. How are we living out distinctive discipleship in our context? What are the things we need to go against the grain of in the culture that God's placed us in? Grain of in the culture that God's placed us in? In what ways are the up in and out of your church's life set apart and distinctive? Do you catch yourself trying to hide something of the church and its traditions which could be creatively turned around so to show a healthy distinctiveness? Where could you stand out more as a church? Not in trying to be attractive by things you perform or put on as a show, but rather how can you stand out more in how you behave? What's your relationship with risk like? Because living distinctively requires a high threshold for risk.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Thanks for listening. If you didn't know already, there is an Instagram account for this podcast, which is at churchplantchat, where you can keep up to date with what's happening on the podcast and other bits about planting, but you can also DM me on there if you ever wanted to chat or pray. You can also be contacted by email at churchplantchat, at gmailcom. There are show notes in the description of the episode. Do check them out. I'd love to connect with you, so if you'd like to, don't hesitate to get in touch. Thank you for listening. I hope it's been helpful. See you next time.